Showing results by author "Saki (H.H. Munro)" in All Categories

The Chronicles of Clovis, published in 1911, was the third in Saki (H. H. Munro)'s series of very funny and very vicious stories. As an insider, Saki was ideally poised to eviscerate the Edwardian middle class way of life, and his pitiless and magnetic sense of humour - teamed with an ability to wield that sharpest of writer's tools, the (very) short story - makes these some of the funniest and most quotable of tales. All of the running themes in Saki's work are here.

Here are 12 specially selected tales by one of the masters of this miniature art, Saki (H.H Munro). They range from the comic deception of "The Schartz Metterklume Method" to "The Cobweb", a subtle meditation on life, change and death. Also included is Munro's short essay "Birds on the Western Front", a poignant description of some of Nature's response to the devastation of war, written in the very place where Munro would tragically lose his life to a sniper's bullet in 1916.

"The Easter Egg", a short story by H. H. Munro ("Saki"), is not a happy Easter story but a tale of a proud and brave mother who loves her son even though the son is timid and perhaps cowardly. The story takes place prior to World War I, and the son, in his one act of bravery, prevents an international incident that possibly would have started the war sooner.

Hector Hugh Munro (December 18, 1870-November 14, 1916), better known by the pen name Saki and frequently as H. H. Munro, was a British writer whose witty, mischievous, and sometimes macabre stories satirize Edwardian society and culture. He is considered a master of the short story and often compared to O. Henry and Dorothy Parker. Influenced by Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, and Rudyard Kipling, he himself influenced A. A. Milne, Noel Coward, and P. G. Wodehouse.

In compiling this anthology, it was my intention to focus on stories of crime motivated by hate. Not racially, politically, or religiously motivated violence, even though these are labeled ‘hate crimes’ in contemporary media.